Cacao Brings Us Together: Amsterdam Cocoa Week 2027

Cacao Brings Us Together | Upcoming event | October 26, 2026

Cacao may begin on a farm, but its story grows wherever people meet: among growers, researchers, chocolate makers, traders, and everyone curious about what goes into a cup or a bar. In February 2027, those conversations will meet in Amsterdam.

Amsterdam Cocoa Week is scheduled for February 22–28, 2027, with the theme “Financing the Future of Cocoa.” The organizers are bringing together business meetings, industry discussions, and public chocolate experiences rather than treating cacao as a product with only one audience.

One week, many sides of cacao

The confirmed program includes the Chocoa Trade Fair (February 24–26), the Chocoa Conference (February 25–26), and the Amsterdam Chocolate Festival (February 27–28). The festival offers visitors the chance to meet chocolate makers and explore cacao through tastings and masterclasses. Industry events focus on the people, businesses, policies, and financial systems shaping cocoa's future.

The historic Beurs van Berlage is the main gathering venue. Specific sessions, speakers, and registration arrangements may change as the event approaches.

The question behind the theme

Financing may sound far away from a cacao farmer's harvest or a chocolate maker's recipe. But it reaches everything from planting and disease management to fermentation equipment, local processing, and the ability of producer communities to withstand an unpredictable season.

The 2027 conference says it will discuss farmer livelihoods, climate resilience, entrepreneurship, sustainable supply chains, and access to investment. These are announced discussion priorities, not evidence that the event has already delivered new funding or higher incomes.

The questions worth asking are specific: Who can access capital? Under what terms? How much value stays in cacao-growing communities? And will the people closest to the harvest have a real voice in the decisions?

Why we're following it

For XOL, cacao brings us together because its story is bigger than the finished chocolate. It connects the hands that grow it, the knowledge that transforms it, and the people who share it. A gathering that puts producers and consumers in the same conversation is worth watching—especially if it leads to transparent, lasting opportunities at origin.

We'll be watching for concrete commitments and practical outcomes after the conference, rather than treating a promising theme as a finished achievement. XOL's attendance or participation has not been announced.

Official event information: Amsterdam Cocoa Week · Chocoa program and trade fair · Chocoa Conference · Amsterdam Chocolate Festival.

Cover image: archival photograph of Beurs van Berlage taken September 1, 2016, by C messier; Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. No alterations to the photograph. The image illustrates the venue, not a 2027 event.